Unearthed: 1969 Pontiac Firebird

There are times when it's worth it to reengineer an American muscle car. In other cases, the owner/self-described expert tuner should have left the project alone entirely. For this particular 1969 Pontiac Firebird, you can decide. Judging by these photos, the body of the car remains perfect, but with new wheels that are polished aluminum American Racing Torque-Thrust 2s with Gorilla nuts and locks. The car was built to handle and stop like a BMW (the owner is reportedly a BMW master tech), all the while keeping its American muscle car heritage.

The rebuild also included a transmission change from the original 350 automatic to a five-speed manual. There's also a custom Ram-Air hood with three-way all cold air. The owner also installed Bi-Xenon 6k hi/low beams, seat heaters, and an LED third brake light from a BMW 645i trunklid to the rear window. So while the exterior results look very nice, the question is whether the driving characteristics have deviated too far from the original?